Air pollution deaths expected to rise because of climate change

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, estimates that if current trends continue, climate change will be responsible for another 60,000 air pollution-related deaths globally in the year 2030. By 2100, that number could jump to 260,000.

The authors say this is the most comprehensive study to date on how climate change will affect health as a result of exacerbating air pollution. The research incorporates results from several of the world's top climate change modeling groups in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan and New Zealand.

Hotter temperatures "can speed up the reaction rate of air pollutants that form in the atmosphere," lead study author Jason West, an associate professor of environmental sciences and engineering in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told CBS News. "Places that by and large get drier from climate change would be expected to increase air pollution concentrations."

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has a really big benefit for air pollution and therefore for human health," West said.

In addition to increasing air pollution deaths, climate change is also expected to have a growing impact on health through rising rates of heat stress, the wider spread of infectious diseases, and reduced access to clean water and food.